Strait of Malacca

Strait of Malacca,Small boats moored at Port Kelang harbour, Malaysia, on the Strait of Malacca.Bernard Pierre Wolff/Photo ResearchersStrait of Malacca.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.waterway connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean). It runs between the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the west and peninsular (West) Malaysia and extreme southern Thailand to the east and has an area of about 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km). The strait is 500 miles (800 km) long and is funnel-shaped, with a width of only 40 miles (65 km) in the south that broadens northward to some 155 miles (250 km) between We Island off Sumatra and the Isthmus of Kra on the mainland. The strait derived its name from the trading port of Melaka (formerly Malacca)—which was of importance in the 16th and 17th centuries—on the Malay coast.

In the south of the strait, water depths rarely exceed 120 feet (37 metres) and are usually about 90 feet (27 metres). Toward the northwest, the bottom gradually deepens until it reaches to about 650 feet (200 metres) as the strait merges with the Andaman Basin. Numerous islets, some fringed by reefs and sand ridges, hinder passage at the southern entrance to the strait. The sand ridges are identified as accumulations of material that have been brought down by rivers from Sumatra.

Geologically, the strait belongs to the Sunda Shelf, which was an extensive, low-relief land surface at the beginning of Quaternary time (about 2.6 million years ago), and appears to have remained undisturbed by crustal movements for about the past 7 million years. The strait attained its present configuration after having been inundated by the postglacial rise of the sea level resulting from the melting of land ice in higher latitudes.

Coastal swamps are commonly found on both sides of the strait, and a huge, low-lying swamp forest lies along the eastern coast of Sumatra. The strait is silting on both sides, and, near the mouths of large rivers, silt accretions range from about 30 feet (9 metres) on the coast of Malaya to about 650 feet annually on the east coast of Sumatra.

The climate of the strait is hot and humid and is characterized by the northeast monsoon during the (northern) winter and the southwest monsoon during the summer. The average annual rainfall varies between 76 inches (1,930 mm) and 101 inches (2,570 mm). Throughout the year, the current flows northwest through the strait. Surface-water temperatures in the strait are 87 to 88 °F (30.6 to 31.1 °C) in the east and may be as much as 4 °F (2.2 °C) lower in the west. The close proximity of land and the discharge of large rivers result in a low salinity for the strait.

Singapore and harbour, at the southern gateway to the Strait of Malacca.Dave Saunders—Stone/Getty ImagesAs the link between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca is the shortest sea route between India and China and hence is one of the most heavily traveled shipping channels in the world. In early times, it helped to determine the direction of major Asian migrations of peoples through the Malay Archipelago. The strait was successively controlled by the Arabs, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British. Singapore, one of the world’s most important ports, is situated at the strait’s southern end.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, petroleum companies established new oil wells to exploit the oil fields along Sumatra’s east coast, just off the Sunda Shelf region. Besides other ships, the strait affords passage to giant oil tankers voyaging between the Middle East oil fields and ports in Japan and elsewhere in East Asia.